


to the future

by AbsoluteTempest



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Multi, New Year's Eve, Post-Legion Mate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 15:36:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17266838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsoluteTempest/pseuds/AbsoluteTempest
Summary: he steps forward on the path, everyone by his side





	to the future

**Author's Note:**

> to my friends
> 
> Here's to a good year!

The cold air of New Year's Eve slips through his fingers as he hurries his way towards the shrine.

His original plan, the plan he has every year, was to go to the shrine the next day with his mom and Emi. But at last second, he was approached by his friends earlier in the day at Card Capital.

Five of them, Kai, Misaki, Miwa, Kamui, and Naoki, were going to the shrine together that night, and they all wanted him to go with them. He was hesitant until Emi, who was also there, told him to go.

“It's fine Aichi! Go enjoy the New Year with everyone!”

So here he is, running late to meet everyone, in such a rush he could only grab a jacket and a scarf to keep the cold away. He rubs his hands, and shoves them in his jacket 

When Aichi arrives at the shrine, he stands there, intimidated by the large crowd that stands between him and his friends.

He gets his frozen fingers to move, fishing his phone out from his pocket and opens their group chat.

(22:15) Aichi: I'm here but the crowd is really huge!  
(22:15) Miwa: Never fear, Aichi, the loyal retriever is on his way! ＼（＾▽＾）／

Aichi frowns. The retriever? One of them is going to meet him but who?

He looks around in the crowd for a minute until he sees him.

Long black coat, blue scarf floating slightly behind him as he effortlessly weaves his way through the crowd towards him. 

“Kai.”

Kai finally gets to him, and nods towards him. “Hey, Aichi.” He glances down towards the hands holding his phone. “Aren't you cold?”

Aichi laughs, scratching his face. “A little, but I have pockets to warm myself with! Let's go meet up with the others.”

Kai nods and the two start their weave back into the crowd. Or...at least try to.

Aichi was never good with crowds, always trying to avoid them for a good portion of his childhood. It's no surprise he finds himself separated from Kai more than once. He even finds him quite childishly holding on to Kai's scarf at one point.

“S-sorry,” he finds himself mumbling to him.

Kai pauses, tugging his scarf above his mouth. He fidgets with it, looking around, gives a sigh.

He finally leans into Aichi's ear. “Aichi,” he whispers, shaky, his voice barely audible above the crowd. “H-hold my hand...just so you don't get lost.”

Aichi can feel his face begin to flush, but he can see out of the corner of his eye Kai's face turning beat red too. 

“Okay,” he squeaks.

It takes a minute before Kai is finally able to take his hand, he too without gloves, with his larger warmer hand. He puts both his hand and Aichi's into his pocket, and the two begin to weave through the crowd again.

The anxiety from the crowd fades away, as now all he can think about is the warm hand holding his.

He thinks about the past year, how he and Kai have been slowly getting closer and closer, spending more time together, together outside of Card Capital. He doesn't know when this unspeakable truth came to be, if it came from the many times of brushed hands, accidental close faces, awkward pauses.

They both know by now that unspeakable truth that hangs over him but they both hesitate to make anything official. Kai had told them all his invitation from Gaillard, moving to France to join the Euro League. Aichi himself wasn't sure if he is staying in Japan for college. Neither of them are sure if they are ready to be together, yet worlds apart.

For now, Aichi is fine with this, and it seems Kai is fine too. They have plenty of time to navigate this confusing world together.

Familiar shouting brings him back from his thoughts. 

Aichi and Kai quickly unravel their hands as the two begin to see the rest of the group standing off to the side. Misaki and Miwa wave, with Miwa wearing a cheshire grin on his face. Kamui and Naoki stand there, wanting to wave, but hold too many trinkets and knick knacks to be able to.

Aichi can’t help but smile, with Kai at his side, with his friends here in front of him.

“I see the loyal retriever has found you!” Miwa says, eyes staring at Aichi, and at Kai, who has suddenly found interest in a nearby stand.

Aichi nods, trying to hide the fact they were holding hands five seconds before. “He did...sorry about being late!”

Misaki smiles. “It’s alright Aichi, we weren’t going to start without you. Shall we get going?”

The group starts to walk towards where most of the people here are concentrated. Misaki and Miwa walk in the front, casually talking about everything going on around them. He can’t help but notice the occasional brush of their hands, although he says nothing. He talks to Naoki and Kamui, who show him all the stuff they got walking around, things that are supposed to boost this year’s luck. He highly doubts it, only awkwardly laughing and scratching his face when they urge him to buy it too.

Sometimes, he can’t help but glance behind him, to Kai in the back of the group, who looks around in genuine interest. Sometimes, they meet eyes, smile warmly, but they have lost the courage, the reason, to link their hands again.

It takes a while to get to the front of the shrine, even though Aichi doesn’t mind too much being surrounded by his friends. But soon they do get there, and one by one they clap their hands together and pray.

He shivers a little with his gloveless hands exposed to the cold again, wishing they could be warmed up again by Kai. 

He smiles slightly, thinking how peaceful it is, how cherished this moment is, to be here with his friends. He makes the mistake of opening one eye, so he could see them all, so he can remember this moment.

Aichi knows that Naoki has always been an emotional person, who get teary-eyed at the drop of a hat, but seeing his friend with a steady stream of tears down his face makes something click in his mind. 

The fact that everyone here, each and everyone of his friends here, wanted him to go along, to pray together, was...was because…

“Aichi?”

He doesn’t realize until he hears his name that everyone is staring at him, his hands still held together.

“W-what?”

Misaki moves first, grabbing his hand and leading him away from the shrine, the lights, the people, with the rest of the group following close behind him.

Aichi laughs, although for some reason it comes out shaky. “I-I didn’t even get to formulate a good prayer yet...Misaki, I--”

He freezes when Misaki reaches up to his face, and brushes gently away the tears that have mirrored Naoki’s just a minute before.

“O-oh...I’m crying, huh…” he brushes the rest away with his sleeve quickly, looking down at the ground, fingers pressed together. He feels tiny again, like he used to before he met the others. “It’s just...I realized...you guys, you guys came here last year...the five of you…”

A sudden air of unease hangs on the group, remembering that last year, on Christmas, they was only five of them. On New Year, only five of them.

Aichi tries to quit the stream of tears welling his eyes, but it is no use. “Did you all...did you all pray for the same thing? I’m sorry...for causing all that trouble…I--”

He suddenly finds his face pressed into a long black coat, a blue scarf that now hangs loosely. It’s suddenly hard to breath, to move. 

“Aichi,” says Kai. He can feel his chest move, breathes in, breathes out. “We did. And you’re here now...it’s over. Let’s...keep moving forward.”

Despite the tears, Aichi can’t help but smile into Kai’s jacket. What a Kai-like response.

He’s about to pull away, his face beginning to flush in embarrassment, having been held by the person he hold the closest to his heart, when he feels someone hug him from behind.

He twists to look and see it is Kamui, clinging tightly to him, face buried into his jacket. “K-Kamui?”

“I hate to admit, but he’s right, you know,” Kamui mutters into his jacket.

Aichi soon finds a sobbing Naoki crying into his shoulder, Misaki who rests her head on his shoulder blade, and Miwa who stretches his arms, to hug Aichi, to rest one hand on Kai and the other on Misaki.

Aichi’s smile grows, the tears slowing into a trickle down his face. He doesn’t want to leave this warm embrace, the warmest he felt all night. To think, a year ago, it was cold, lonely, painful.

When he returns to the shrine the next day, with his mom and with Emi, he prays again, his prayer is easy to slip off his tongue.

Last year, the other five had prayed for his return to the world. And now that he is here, he wants to return their kindness, their warmth. He prays to continue along the path in front of him, with everyone at his side.


End file.
